1. (1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copier, printer, facsimile machine or the like, in particular, relating to an image forming apparatus having a function of setting up the image output conditions of images to be output based on input image data.
2. (2) Description of the Prior Art
Recently, there have been known image forming apparatus that include an input means having a function of receiving additional input of image data and an output means performing image output based on the image data input through the input means, and have a function of setting up the image output conditions of the images to be output by the output means. In such an image forming apparatus, it is possible to simply set up and/or change the image output conditions of images to be output before execution of the job.
As a prior art, there has been disclosed an image forming apparatus having a function of reading documents several times (for example, continuous reading and copying function), in which the display screen is switched from the preview of the currently displayed document sheaf to the preview of the document sheaf that has been scanned before or after the current one, by operating the forward jump button or backward jump button (see Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open 2008-306469).
Here, the continuous reading and copying function means a function in which when documents are scanned by using an automatic document feeder, images of documents, which have been set and scanned multiple times by the automatic document feeder, are output collectively.
In general, when the continuous reading and copying function is used, the continuous reading mode is set up as the operation mode. Then, a document or a multiple number of documents are set and the start key is pressed so as to perform reading of the set documents. When the reading of the set documents has been completed, another set of documents is placed and the start key is pressed. This process is repeated.
When reading of all the documents has been completed in the above way, the continuous reading end key is pressed. When the continuous reading end key is pressed, printing of the scanned images is started.
According to the above-described image forming apparatus, when document images have been captured by the continuous reading and copying function, it is possible to promptly switch the preview display from the currently displayed document sheaf to the document sheaf that has been read previously or subsequently.
However, the technology in Patent Document 1 only discloses the continuous reading and copying function when documents are continuously scanned a multiple number of times, whereas there is no reference to setup of image output conditions for outputting images at the second reading and after, such as one-sided or dual-sized printing, printing of two pages on one sheet, color printing or monochrome printing and others. Therefore, there is the problem that if the user wants to make setup of image output conditions different between one document sheaf and another, it is impossible to deal with such a situation.